01,02,03-07-2011 Reload Festival

Location: Sulingen (Germany)
By: Nina Mende

Day 1:

After Fiddlers Green it was time for Skindred to rock the stage. Skindred is a Welsh rock band from Newport. The band was formed in 1998 following the disbandment of vocalist Benji Webbe’s previous band, Dub War. Skindred’s musical style mixes alternative rock, heavy metal, punk rock and reggae. The band also integrate elements of dancehall, hardcore, ska, hip hop, drum and bass, dubstep and various other influences into their music. The group refers to this style as “ragga metal”. The group has gained fans including Jada Pinkett Smith. Skindred came on rocking big time. With a new outfit the singer got the audience to bounce and mosh along, shout and sing, going crazy to the music. Skindred are currently touring through Europe and are about to release their new album. The audience loved them and did everything the band asked them to do. Simply amazing. Skindred is a brilliant live band.

Now it was Terror’s turn to rock the masses. Terror is a hardcore band from Los Angeles, California. Their second album “One with the Underdogs” sold over 40,000 copies. They have also been on tours throughout Europe (including Russia), Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, Mexico and South America. Their third album, “Always the Hard Way” reached #10 on Billboard’s Heatseekers and #19 on Top Independent Records Loud and drunk people filled the front row. Bald headed with their fists up in the air the audience rocked along to Terror. Loud and proud, rocking and talking to the audience. During one song the singer threw his microphone into the audience and let them sing for him. The fans grabbed the mic and shouted the lyrics right away, almost as good as the actual Terror singer. Standing strong and making the audience feel one with the band, Terror owned it. With full force. What an amazing show.

Up next was Blood For Blood. An American hardcore band rocking the masses. Blood for Blood is a hardcore band from Boston, Massachusetts. They formed in 1994, motivated by the hardcore scene in Boston and New York City at the time. In 1997 they were signed to Victory Records. Their sound is influenced by Sheer Terror, Breakdown, Carnivore, and Raw Deal. The audience moshed and banged along to the troublemakers on stage. Strong, loud and ass kicking Blood For Blood went through their performance always talking to the audience in between animating them to rock harder and scream louder. And they did. Simply amazing. They even got the audience to sing happy birthday for their guitar player. The guys rocked around on stage and made time fly by.

After Blood For Blood it was time for the last band of the evening already. Hatebreed is an American metallic hardcore band from Connecticut. The band was founded in November 1994. Hatebreed were up on stage to rock the last little ounce out of the reload crowd for the day. And they made it. Loud and full of energy Hatebreed nailed it. The audience followed them and did everything the band asked them to do. Mosh pit, circle pit, wall of death. Everything. Simply breathtaking, to say the least. With strobe light and bright spots they were almost blinding the audience with their light show. But it fit perfectly well to their strong and powerful music. The powerful music kicked ass and the audience loved it. They were like an army, following Hatebreed with every step and note.

Day 2:

Second day of Reload Festival was just as rainy and cold as the previous day but that didn’t stop rock fans from coming. I opened my day with the awesome Californian rock band of The Ghost Inside. The Ghost Inside (formerly A Dying Dream) is an American Melodic Hardcore band from Los Angeles, California, formed in 2006. Absolutely powerful and energetic they rocked the audience and took over the stage. Constantly jumping around they infected the audience to do so too. Fast and thriving music kicked asses. The audience loved it. The band talked a lot to the audience in between the songs and made band and audience feel like one. Really amazing.

On the day went with the Australian rock band Deez Nuts. Deez Nuts is an Australian hardcore punk band that formed in Melbourne, Australia in 2007. Currently comprising vocalist J. J. Peters, Guitarist Stu Callinan, Drummer Ty Alexander and various live Bassists, the band has released one EP and Two Studio Albums. Hardcore at its finest. The band was rocking around on stage while the audience was moshing around in front of the stage. The circle pit grew bigger than it already had been for The Ghost Inside and the audience was shouting louder. Probably because they were now shaken wake enough to do so. Really amazing performance.

The next band did not rock an ounce less but continued right away: The German band 4lyn now rocked the audience. Amazing to see that really everybody was going along. 4lyn started out with new songs before they began playing older songs. Except for the brand new songs the audience could sing along to all songs. Always four fingers in the air you could tell they did not see 4lyn for the first time. Their powerful and energetic performance definitely got everybody rocking along and even convinced people that had never seen 4lyn before. Their new album will be out soon followed by a tour. So make sure to not miss out on that.

Up next was The Bones. A great punk rock band from Sweden that played their songs for the people and they gladly went along. The guys did not talk a whole lot in between the songs and sped through their set but their music did not need any explanations. People were rocking and moshing along to the catchy tunes and definitely enjoyed the show despite the rainy and cold weather.

Getting closer to the end of day 2 it was Ill Niño’s turn to rock the stage and the audience of Reload Festival. Ill Niño is an American six-piece alternative metal band from New Jersey founded in 1998. The band has sold over 1 million units worldwide; they have 5 studio albums and 10 music videos. The two drummers came on first and played a little duet before the rest of the band came on stage and rocked the masses. The whirled around on stage with their long dreads like a hurricane and their music was just as strong and pulling. The audience went insane with Ill Niño on stage. Crowd surfing, moshing, head banging, jumping and shouting along. The audience did it all. The singer as well as the rest of the band talked to the audience a whole lot. Animating them to rock harder and be louder. And the audience did. Ill Niño played old and new songs. Their amazing show made everybody forget the pouring rain. Simply brilliant.

Now it was time for the last band of the night and it was nobody less than Limp Bizkit. Limp Bizkit is an American nu metal band from Jacksonville, Florida. The band’s lineup consists of Fred Durst (lead vocals), Wes Borland (guitar), Sam Rivers (bass), John Otto (drums) and DJ Lethal. Formed in 1995, the band achieved mainstream success with their second studio album Significant Other, released in 1999. Limp Bizkit has been nominated for three Grammy Awards and have won several other major awards. The band has sold an estimated 60 million albums worldwide. As the curtain fell everyone was going crazy. Limp Bizkit rocked it from first to last. Wes Borland was wearing a freaky costume again, looking like a diver of the 30s. Fred Durst was jumping around singing the songs, DJ Lethal was going nuts in his DJ booth, Limp Bizkit was rocking it strong. Everyone knew the words to the old and new songs, bouncing along and rocking along. The light show was immense and the back had the band name lit up again and again. Limp Bizkit put up a huge show and impressed the now literally packed festival ground. Everyone was rocking the rain away and had a blast. What an amazing closing of the second festival day.

Day 3

The fist band I watched was Wirtz, a German rock singer on his solo path. Since 1999 he was the singer of a band called Sub7even and since 2008 Daniel has his own project and band simply called Wirtz. The last album was released in 2009, the new one will be released later on this year. Today he already played some new songs along with old hits. All songs were in German. The audience rocked along to the songs, sang along and moved along. You could tell that not all of them were familiar with some of the show “rituals” but the band taught them gladly and mentioned the upcoming tour. The people loved the rocking performance. The German lyrics were stripped down straight out of Daniel’s mind and were shared by at least half of the audience. Really amazing and touchy. The guys rocked the stage big time. I can’t wait for the tour.

Up next were the Swedish rockers of Soilwork. Soilwork is a Swedish melodic death metal band from Helsingborg. They are currently signed to Nuclear Blast. Formed in late 1995 by Björn Strid and Peter Wichers, originally under the name Inferior Breed, the band changed their name in late 1996 to Soilwork (meaning “working from the ground up”). The guys of Soilwork started their show with a full blast. They were speeding through their set that they were done early. But nobody cared. They had rocked and moshed their minds out during the shortened show time and were exhausted afterwards. Soilwork rushed the adrenaline through the veins with their speed.

Recharged and reloaded the audience was now ready to rock with Agnostic Front. Agnostic Front is an American Hardcore punk band. The band began playing hardcore punk similar to their contemporaries, and were thrust to the forefront of the burgeoning New York hardcore scene in the mid-1980s with their widely regarded 1984 classic Victim in Pain before evolving to incorporate thrash metal elements into their music. By the late ’90s, Agnostic Front had signed with Epitaph Records and adopted an Oi! sound before growing into a crossover metallic hardcore hybrid similar to bands like Blood for Blood. Powerful and energetic Agnostic Front rocked through their sixty minutes set. The audience was infected by all the energy and power and went along strong, rocking out to the songs and shouting along. Big time. Agnostic Front knew how to get the audience to be all theirs. You could tell that the band was doing this for many years already, and they still had a blast. So did their fans. What a powerful show, hard to top.

But if there is one band that can rock harder and be louder then it is Papa Roach. Papa Roach is an American rock band from Vacaville, California. Their first major-label release was the triple-platinum album Infest (2000). The group’s success continued with their gold album Lovehatetragedy (2002), their platinum album Getting Away with Murder (2004), The Paramour Sessions (2006), and Metamorphosis (2009). The band’s seventh album, Time for Annihilation, was released on August 31, 2010. Papa Roach has sold about 14 million album copies worldwide, and are known for their hits “…To Be Loved”, “Last Resort”, “She Loves Me Not”, “Scars”, “Forever”, and “Lifeline”. People went insane as the Californians entered the stage. With an amazing light and sound the guys rocked the stage and owned the festival. They played songs off all albums and the audience rocked along to it. Singing out loud the fans were almost louder than Jacoby. Even the security guys rocked along and animated the audience to start crowd surfing. And they did. For a song Jacoby went down to the photo pit to be close to the fans, singing and rocking with them. For another song he asked the entire audience to kneel down and jump up when the music sets in. It worked out perfectly well and looked amazing. The show was being filmed and as the guys told their fans, they rocked even more. Papa Roach was one with their fans. A heartwarming show with a lot of passion and power, and ass kicking rock music. Papa Roach went insane on stage, never standing still and always responding to everything in the audience. The audience appreciated it a whole lot by rocking and cheering. What an amazing closing for a great festival. Papa Roach made it once again. What a brilliant live band.

Lets see who will be up for next years Reload Festival, with hopefully a little sunshine.

More photo’s of this event can be found at roseofthedevilsgarden.com

Links:
Fiddlers Official
Skindred Official
Hatebreed Official
Terror Facebook
The Ghost Inside Official
Blood for Blood MySpace
4lyn Official
Deeznuts MySpace
Bones Official
Ill Nino MySpace
Limp Bizkit Official
Soilwork Official
Wirtz Official
Agnostic Front Official
Papa Roach Official